What to know about the ruling barring Marine Le Pen from seeking public office for five years

PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been sentenced to a five-year ban on running for public office for embezzling EU funds, a major political earthquake. The ruling, which takes effect immediately, is likely to bar her from running in France’s next presidential election.

Le Pen, who was twice runner-up to French President Emmanuel Macron, has enjoyed growing support in recent years. Monday's verdict will weigh heavily on political life, both in France and more widely in Europe, and on her own future as a political force.

For Le Pen, the worst-case scenario materialized.

The 56-year-old daughter of the late far-right totemic figure Jean-Marie Le Pen was sentenced to two years under house arrest while wearing an electronic ankle bracelet, and an additional two-year suspended sentence, and five years’ ineligibility for public office with immediate effect.

Le Pen’s lawyer said she would appeal the verdict but she will remain ineligible while she does and so could be ruled out of the 2027 presidential race. Le Pen won’t serve the house arrest sentence until all appeals are exhausted but the ban on running for office will be implemented immediately despite her legal challenge.

With the election just two years away, time is running out, and there’s no guarantee that an appeals court would rule more favorably.

Le Pen and other National Rally party officials stood trial for having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides instead to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, violating the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The National Rally was called the National Front at the time.

The judge said Le Pen had been at the heart of a “system” that her party used to siphon off EU parliament money. Le Pen, who denied wrongdoing. was also fined 100,000 euros ($108,000).

Monday's ruling came amid record ratings in opinion polls for Le Pen, who hoped her decade-long efforts to steer her party towards the mainstream would finally deliver at the next presidential election.

Since she inherited the leadership of the National Front party from her father in 2011, she has worked to crack the wall of fear of the far right that so far has barred their path to the presidency.

She changed the party name and booted her embarrassing father out in 2015, part of her effort to rid the renamed National Rally of the taint of racism and antisemitism that clung to the far right for decades.

A wily politician, Le Pen also transformed her own image from that of an aggressive, anti-system proponent to a mild-mannered spokeswoman for France’s forgotten.

The normalization strategy has paid off and the party has become the main political group in the lower house of the Parliament, developing a strong network of officials across France.

Since 2011, Le Pen has been the leading figure of the National Rally. Ten years later, Jordan Bardella, 29, succeeded her as party president so that she could focus on the upcoming presidential election.

Last year, Bardella led the party's campaign for the European elections while Le Pen took the helm of the group of RN lawmakers at the French National Assembly. Under Monday's ruling, Le Pen is allowed to keep her mandate as a member of Parliament.

Bardella had a meteoric rise to the top, honing his political skills as the president of the party’s youth wing. Although he has been careful not to overshadow Le Pen, his popularity has grown fast, especially among young people. If Le Pen is effectively banned from running, Bardella seems like the natural candidate to succeed her.

Yet observers say there’s no guarantee he would be able to convince as many voters as she does. In recent months, some voices inside the party have criticized his management as too focused on his personal career.

The National Rally was fined 2 million euros, of which it must definitely pay 1 million, while the other half would be demanded in the event of a repeat offence. The party will also relinquish another million euros which were confiscated during the investigation.

It’s unclear how big an impact the confiscation and fine will have on the party’s coffers. An audit of the party’s accounts between 2013 and 2016 revealed that it was running a deficit of 9.1 million euros by the end of 2016. Yet, the party still had a cash balance of 1.7 million euros and had lent 1 million euros to Le Pen’s 2017 presidential campaign, while also holding 87,000 euros in loans to Cotelec, its funding association.

At the time, the party was also indebted to a Russian bank for 9.4 million euros, a loan taken out in 2014 for 6 million euros. However, the National Rally's electoral successes in last year's legislative elections provided broad financial resources to the party. In France, state funding of political parties is largely based on election results.

FILE - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen reacts at the National Assembly before French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou delivers his general policy speech meant to outline his top priorities, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

FILE - French far-right leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen addresses supporters during an election campaign rally in Nice, southern France, Thursday April 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File)

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at a Paris court expected to deliver a verdict in an embezzlement case that could shake up French politics and derail far-right leader Marine Le Pen's career Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

FILE - A torn poster of French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen is seen in Henin-Beaumont, northern France, Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler, File)

FILE - French far right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen attends a party meeting in Nanterre, France, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon. File)

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at a Paris court expected to deliver a verdict in an embezzlement case that could shake up French politics and derail far-right leader Marine Le Pen's career Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

SUZUKA, Japan (AP) — Yuki Tsunoda finally has his promotion at Red Bull. That was difficult enough, elevated to the top team last week as Liam Lawson was demoted to Red Bull's No. 2 Formula 1 team — Racing Bulls — after failing to score points in the season's first two races.

Delivering will be even tougher as Tsunoda joins a long list of Japanese drivers with varying degrees of success in F1. His first Grand Prix for Red Bull is on Sunday in Japan.

Tsunoda faces pressure before adoring home fans, is another Japanese driver trying to crack through, and bears the weight of racing alongside four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen.

What advice has Red Bull team principal Christian Horner given him?

“Be close as much as possible to Max,” Tsunoda said Thursday at the Suzuka track. He described as “brutal” not being chosen initially by Red Bull for this season, but looked relaxed taking question about this abrupt promotion.

“I'm not saying I'm confident that I can perform straight away like Max,” he added. But he said he was confident he could produce well compared with “other drivers” Red Bull might have chosen.

Lawson also appeared relaxed, smiling as he took questions about his demotion.

"It's something I wasn't expecting,” Lawson said. “It's something that obviously is not my decision and for me it's about making the best of it.”

Lawson attributed part of doing poorly in his first two races with Red Bull to unfamiliar tracks in Australia and China. He'd been hoping to prove himself in Japan, where he drove last season in F1.

This time it will be with Racing Bulls and not Red Bull.

“This is what I was looking forward to from the start, to be honest,” he said, referring to the Suzuka circuit in central Japan. "To a track that I've been to before and just have a proper sort of preparation. It's a track we all like a drivers.”

This is Tsunoda's fifth season in F1, and he needs to deliver points for Red Bull. His best career finish was fourth place in Abu Dhabi in 2021. He's finished out of the points with Racing Bulls in the first two Grand Prix races this season, but placed sixth in the sprint race almost two weeks ago in China.

Red Bull's car this weekend will run with a white paint job, a tribute to automaker Honda. Verstappen has won four consecutive titles with Honda power. This is Red Bull's last season with Honda, moving next year to Ford. Honda moves to power Aston Martin next season.

This is his best chance, and Tsunoda will have to excel to stay with Red Bull. Not just for this season, but for next.

Almost 20 Japanese drivers have competed and none has won an F1 race. Japanese have reached the podium only three times in F1. And all were third-place finishes.

Aguri Suzuki was the first to reach the podium, finishing third in the 1990 Japanese GP.

Kamui Kobayashi was third in the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix driving with Sauber and has scored more points in F1 than any Japanese driver.

Takuma Sato managed a third in the 2004 U.S. Grand Prix. He is also a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

McLaren has won the first two races — Lando Norris in Australia and Oscar Piastri in China — in a field that looks tightly bunched.

Norris leads the driver standings with 44 points, followed by Verstappen with 36 and George Russell of Mercedes with 35. Piastri is one point back with 34.

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who joined Ferrari this season after departing Mercedes, has only nine points. He was 10th in Australia and was disqualified in China following postrace scrutineering. His best result so far is a win in the sprint race in China.

Hamilton has won five times in Japan, and his Ferrari team has vowed to fix the mistakes that saw Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc disqualified in China.

AP Formula 1: https://apnews.com/hub/formula-one

Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan responds to a journalist's question during a news conference at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, central Japan, Thursday, April 3, 2025, ahead Sunday's Japanese Formula One Grand Prix race. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan, center, flanked by Kick Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg of Germany, left, and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco, responds to a journalist's question during a news conference at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, central Japan, Thursday, April 3, 2025, ahead Sunday's Japanese Formula One Grand Prix race. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan responds to a journalist's question during a news conference at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, central Japan, Thursday, April 3, 2025, ahead Sunday's Japanese Formula One Grand Prix race. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

FILE - RB driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan talks at a press conference during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic, File)

FILE - RB driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan, celebrates his third place after the qualifying session ahead of the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix at the Interlagos race track, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ettore Chiereguini, File)

Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan performs a demonstration run during an event in Tokyo, ahead of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Kyodo News via AP)

Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan performs a demonstration run during an event in Tokyo, ahead of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Kyodo News via AP)

Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan smiles during a press conference in Tokyo, ahead of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Kyodo News via AP)